Study On The Relationship Between Counterfactual Thinking, False Belief And Inhibitory Control Of Moderate Mental Retarded Children

Counterfactual thinking is a concept in psychology that involves the human tendency to create possible alternatives to life events that have already occurred; something that is contrary to what actually happened. Since Kahneman and Tversky proposed the concept in1982, wide attention of scholars from home and abroad have been paid to it. Especially that the investigation on children’s counterfactual thinking from a development perspective has become a hot researchStudies have shown that some children cannot do counterfactual reasoning, and there will be so-called "real error". It can be observed more clearly in the development of capacity in the false belief. Studies also have shown that inhibitory control is the cause of the appearance of children’s "real error" Inhibitory control relates to the information superiority which cannot inhibit the reality. These studies of normal children have reached a lot of meaningful results. However, the research on specific groups of children, especially on mentally retarded children, is not yet reported. In addition, there isn’t yet related research on whether inhibitory control can explain the relationship between false belief and ability of Counterfactual thinking. The study conducted the investigation of74children with mental retardation, and explored the counterfactual thinking development of children with moderate to severe mental retardation. It will explore its internal mechanism, whereby revealing the relationship between counterfactual thinking, false beliefs and executive function. The role inhibitory control plays in this relationship will also be studied. It’s aimed at providing theoretical guidance for the research and the education of the mentally retarded children’s cognition.The following conclusions can be collected during the study:1) The ability of counterfactual thinking of mentally retarded children in this study show an upward trend with the growing of the age. During the study, the group aged from7to9the scored noticeably less than other groups.2) The ability of false beliefs of mentally retarded children in this study show an upward trend with the growing of the age. During the study, the group aged from7to9the scored noticeably less than other groups.3) The ability of inhibitory control of mentally retarded children in this study show an upward trend with the growing of the age. During the study, the group aged from7to9the scored noticeably less than other groups.4) Noticeable differences can be observed in the position of the false belief task on the mentally retarded children from different school, while there isn’t noticeable difference in the false belief tasks, counterfactual thinking tasks or inhibitory control tasks.5) There is noticeable difference in development of false belief, counterfactual thinking and inhibitory control of mentally retarded children aged from7to15.6) The ability of false belief and inhibitory control can predict the level of development of counterfactual thinking. Those two factors account61%explanation of the variation in counterfactual thinking score variance.